Amie over at Written Expressions recently posted aboutVolunteerism interrupted. While it sucks that her attempts at helping out were interrupted, she brings up an interesting point – how can we as one-person shops be socially responsible?
Generally, we’re not an ultra-wealthy bunch. But there are ways we can help others that don’t break us financially. Here are a few ideas:
Dress for Success. I love this organization. Those of us who have left the corporate life behind probably still have some pretty nice office clothing hanging around with nowhere to go. Why not help a sister out? Donate your new or like-new office-appropriate clothing, shoes, and jewelry. There are local chapters all over the place, making it easy for you to clean out the closet and lend a hand.
TOMS Shoes. I just learned about this charity. Basically, you buy a pair of shoes from TOMS Shoes and the organization donates a pair to a child who has none. I’m currently ogling a pair of boots that are admittedly pricey, but I’d have new boots and some child would have his or her first pair of shoes. To me, the cost is worth the payoff.
GoodSearch. This one’s so simple it’s a no-brainer. Set this site as your default home page. Use it to search as you would use Google or Yahoo!. Only each search results in money being donated to your designated charities. See? Simple.
Free Rice. Another no-brainer. This one’s been circulating for quite a while now, but the recent spike in rice prices (they’ve doubled) makes it more critical for those organizations relying on rice to feed the poor.
Volunteer English. This one’s a local one, and one dear to my heart. I’ve been teaching for about six years now, and it’s been hugely rewarding for both the students and me. Teach a foreigner how to speak English and you’ll learn so much about their culture and about your own. And you learn about your own language, which is wonkier when you’re trying to explain it to strangers. If there are no ESL volunteer groups in your area, why not start one?
AMURT and Ananda Marga Service Projects. These are also near and dear to my heart as I belong to the meditation group associated with it. AMURT offers aid all over the world – from New Orleans post-Katrina to remote regions of Asia and Sudan. Ananda Marga also establishes socially-conscious programs in places like Haiti, where they’ve opened and now run schools for children who before had no access to education. We donate to the Haitian school project, which just recently got a roof and put in a water tank on the roof (water is otherwise 3 miles away in the mountains).
Beyond that, why not volunteer for an hour at week at the local food bank, Meals on Wheels, or start a coat drive, donate old prom dresses, buy a kid a bookbag and supplies, etc?
Any favorites of yours not listed?
New York Horse Rescue is my personal favorite. They take retired racehorses, premarin foals, etc. and find homes for them so they won’t end up at the slaughterhouse.
My frustration with many volunteer organizations is that they don’t utilize the skills of their volunteers. They have the ones who waft around talking about how much they do, but don’t actually do anything; and then the rest are doing the work, but the ones with the actual skills who do the work rather than playing the inter-organization political games do the grunt work — which is part of it — but don’t get to do the work for which they’re best skilled that would also serve the organization best.
Also, most of these organization are skewered to courting 9-5 workers. I work nights and weekends; I can volunteer during the day — few organizations will utilize you for that. Or keep in touch if you don’t fit the 9-5 mode.
One of the things I’ve started doing when an organization interests me is researching how much of the money raised goes to the cause. If too much is spent on administration, I pass.
I’m like you, Devon. I don’t appreciate the politics or the dogma. I want to get stuff done. All groups suffer from an overabundance of people who don’t want to volunteer. Frankly, because they lack volunteers, they tend to tap into the same ones endlessly – scheduling you to be there at times you MUST be there, etc. It’s rare you find a group that allows you the freedom to come in when you can. It’s why I teach English. I can do it on my time.
Same with the service projects – if I can physically be there, I will be. If not, I’ll donate money to help buy supplies or food.
I have a couple of websites I hit every day. The first is http://www.letssaythanks.com. It’s run by Xerox and gives you the opportunity to send a card to a servicemember. Quick and easy. I also hit http://www.thebreastcancersite.com. There are six tabs across the top that let you click to support different charities. In both instances, very little time or energy on my part, yet together we all make a difference.
But thanks for the new ways that I can give!
I make it a point to always be volunteering in one form or another, and I’ve gotten all my gigs via http://www.govolunteer.ca. It’s a Canadian site that allows you to browse for available positions according to your skills. So far I’ve been a mentor to a gifted 10-year-old, and we ended up self-publishing her short story and presenting it in a local bookstore. Now I’m writing for a local nonprofit environmental newsletter. I find that by combining my skills and interests, I boost my portfolio as well as morale!
Lots of food for thought here–thanks to Lori for the post, and to all of you for even more ideas!